KUALA LUMPUR, 7 April 2009: The National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) today called on CIMB Bank to reconsider its plans to close 60 of its branches as it would send a wrong signal to its employees and customers.

NUBE Secretary-General, J Solomon, told Bernama that Bank Negara should also intervene and persuade CIMB Bank to shelf the move for the time being until the economy improved.

He was commenting on the statement by the Bank’s Head of consumer sales and distribution, Sulaiman Mohd Tahir, that the bank was planning to close 60 of its surplus branches by August and redeploy the staff.

The bank is expected to save RM60 million from the move.

Solomon said the plan would cause much trauma and financial hardship to the employees because they would not be certain where they would be deployed.

He said at times like this, the bank had a social responsibility to ensure that employees did not have to put up with such hardships.